The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services website posted a banner this week blaming U.S. Senate Democrats for the federal government shutdown and urging them to “stop using Nebraska’s most vulnerable people for political leverage.”
On the banner, the state points to Democrats for disrupting the state-federal partnership on public grocery benefits, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, which it says will run out of funds by the end of the month.
According to the Nebraska Examiner, the original message followed a similar approach to the Trump administration, some GOP-led states and some Democratic-led states during the messaging battle over who’s to blame for the federal shutdown.
Nebraska DHHS updated the banner on its website Thursday after reporters and others asked questions, tweaking the announcement from a blanket statement by DHHS into the same message shared as a direct quote from Gov. Jim Pillen.
A DHHS spokesperson said the post was added at the Governor’s Office’s request and was updated to “eliminate any confusion” about where the statement came from. State law prohibits public resources from being used for political purposes, as critics of the banner note. On Thursday afternoon, Pillen’s office confirmed that it approved the posting.
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